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Topic · Instrumentation

Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies

Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies is a research topic within Instrumentation. Science Explorer counts 23k research works in it since 1950. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of advances in time-of-flight imaging techniques, including laser ranging, single-photon detection, lidar systems, and non-line-of-sight imaging. The papers discuss applications such as 3D imaging, depth sensing, and photon counting in various scenarios.

  • Time-of-Flight
  • Laser Ranging
  • Single-Photon Detection
  • 3D Imaging
  • Range Camera
  • Lidar
  • Photon Counting
  • CMOS Sensor
  • Depth Sensing
  • Non-Line-of-Sight Imaging
Research works
23k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+53%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
56% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies

Which countries lead Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2.7k and 777 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2.7k works
  2. 2 United States 777 works
  3. 3 Germany 262 works
  4. 4 Japan 243 works
  5. 5 South Korea 198 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 194 works
  7. 7 India 132 works
  8. 8 France 129 works
  9. 9 Italy 121 works
  10. 10 Russia 108 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 55.8%United States: 15.9%Germany: 5.3%Japan: 5.0%6 others listed: 18.0%56%largest
China2,733 · 55.8%United States777 · 15.9%Germany262 · 5.3%Japan243 · 5.0%6 others listed882 · 18.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies research, followed by Harbin Institute of Technology and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 247 works
  2. 2 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 69 works
  3. 3 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 69 works
  4. 4 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 62 works
  5. 5 Tsinghua UniversityChina 58 works
  6. 6 National University of Defense TechnologyChina 57 works
  7. 7 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 55 works
  8. 8 Nanjing University of Science and TechnologyChina 54 works
  9. 9 University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 54 works
  10. 10 Xidian UniversityChina 52 works

Who are the leading researchers in Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies include Zhong Lin Wang, Wei Huang and Takashi Taniguchi.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  3. 3 Takashi Taniguchi Japan 227k citations
  4. 4 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  5. 5 Trevor J. Darrell United States 206k citations
  6. 6 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations
  7. 7 Edward Hartley Sargent Canada 185k citations
  8. 8 Kevin W. Eliceiri United States 183k citations
  9. 9 Stephen M. Gibson France 182k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies?

The most cited paper in Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies is "LOAM: Lidar Odometry and Mapping in Real-time" (Ji Zhang, Sanjiv Singh, 2014), with 3,248 citations. Next come "LeGO-LOAM: Lightweight and Ground-Optimized Lidar Odometry and Mapping on Variable Terrain" (2,209) and "Single-photon detectors for optical quantum information applications" (1,733).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 LOAM: Lidar Odometry and Mapping in Real-time Ji Zhang, Sanjiv Singh Conference paper 12 Jul 2014 3,248
2 LeGO-LOAM: Lightweight and Ground-Optimized Lidar Odometry and Mapping on Variable Terrain Tixiao Shan, Brendan Englot Conference paper Oct 2018 2,209
3 Single-photon detectors for optical quantum information applications Robert H. Hadfield · Nature Photonics 30 Nov 2009 1,733
4 Stable analytical inversion solution for processing lidar returns James D. Klett · Applied Optics 15 Jan 1981 1,632
5 Picosecond superconducting single-photon optical detector Gregory N Gol'tsman, O. Okunev, Galina M. Chulkova et al. · Applied Physics Letters 6 Aug 2001 1,603
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies research done?

The largest centres of Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Xi'an (China) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Mianyang and Hsinchu.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 654 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 221 works
  3. 3 Xi'anChina 199 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 193 works
  5. 5 WuhanChina 113 works
  6. 6 ChengduChina 112 works
  7. 7 TokyoJapan 101 works
  8. 8 HefeiChina 96 works
  9. 9 HangzhouChina 94 works
  10. 10 HarbinChina 93 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. MianyangCN · 21.0 works6.8×
  2. HsinchuTW · 29.3 works6.2×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies than the world average.

See Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies on the map

Where is the best place to study Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Hong Kong, University of Science and Technology of China and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 15.68%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Hong K…École Polytechnique …University of Scienc…University of Chines…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of Hong KongChina 72.132.9%3.1×14 +103.0%
2University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 67.617.7%8.3×48 +106.2%
3École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneSwitzerland 65.318.2%8.3×17 +15.3%
4University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 64.212.2%8.6×69 +80.2%
5Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 62.911.8%8.6×69 +87.3%
6Tsinghua UniversityChina 62.514.1%5.1×58 +111.9%
7Beihang UniversityChina 61.415.9%8.0×43 +119.0%
8Xidian UniversityChina 59.810.9%14.4×52 +67.9%
9National University of Defense TechnologyChina 59.512.1%15.0×57 +70.7%
10University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 59.511.0%9.7×54 +198.2%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies, country by country

Is Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 53% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.028% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies0.027% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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